Roland P D Omnibus

by Ruth DuCharme

  Several civilians, including one eight-year-old girl, were honored with commendations, presented by the Mayor, for their assistance in Shaw’s rescue.

  Sergeant Shaw remains unavailable for comments at the time of this publication.

  MISSING - BOOK 3

  Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Eight

  Harmony, Montana

  1991

  “Jason! C’mon, lets go!” Marc whispered at the window.

  “Geez dude, your gonna wake my mom and then she’s gonna kill us both!” I whispered back.

  “I guess you’d better get your butt out here then!”

  I grunted as I jumped out the window of my first floor bedroom. It was only a few feet from my windowsill to my mother’s flowerbed and I cringed as I crushed a few of her favorite daisies. She would kill me if she saw that.

  I am grounded and sneaking out was a dumb thing to do but Marc had insisted. He said we were only fourteen once and rules were made to be broken. Marc is also an incorrigible delinquent.

  Once I scrambled out from amongst my mom’s daisies I grabbed my bike off the front lawn and Marc and I rode down the dark street towards the quarry.

  The sky was full of stars and as we rode I couldn’t help but look up in admiration and awe. Montana; they don’t call it Big Sky country for nothing. It was dark out tonight and even though there were zero streetlights, we didn’t need them to navigate this path we knew by heart.

  Marc and I live in the small town of Harmony: population 6,000. I was born in Harmony and I never wanted to leave.

  I loved living in a small town. Everyone knew each other, everyone helped each other and there were no surprises. I’d read about big cities and all that happened there. Big cities have drugs, murders, serial killers and all kinds of weirdo’s. Not in Harmony. The most unsettling things to happen here were maybe a few car burglaries from transients making their way through town or maybe some kids spray painting. The biggest town drama’s consisted of kids smoking out behind the high school…yuck...or a girl getting pregnant by her boyfriend. Double Yuck.

  The big city had guns and violence. Don’t get me wrong, most everyone in Harmony owned and carried a gun, but here, hunting for one’s dinner was the norm and self-protection against bears or snakes took precedents. In my fourteen years I had never heard of anyone in Harmony shooting another person! We all went to church on Sundays and our neighbors looked out for us. Harmony was a safe, comfy place to grow up and all my friends and family were here. I loved Harmony and I was going to live here till the day I died.

  Marc doesn’t share my love for Harmony. He is forever talking about leaving and even though he’s my best friend, I think he’s nuts. He’s an adventurer by heart and he has wild fantasies about leaving town on a train like a darn hobo. Did I tell you he was nuts?

  My mom says Marc and I were born in the same hospital on the same day and that’s why we are two peas in a pod. I don’t know if that is true but Marc is definitely like a brother to me. I don’t know what Marc’s mom would say about us being two peas in a pod. I’ve never met Marc’s mom. He hasn’t either. She died the day he was born.

  When Marc was born his mom and dad brought him home and there were some kind of complications. Marc’s mom died right there in bed holding him. Marc doesn’t really talk about that but I think it bothers him a lot.

  I hated that story. It made me sad. I don’t know what I’d do without my mom. But maybe if you never had one you can’t miss what you never had? Anyway, It was just Marc and his dad and it always had been. His dad had never remarried. I didn’t really like Marc’s dad. Marc didn’t like him either. For some reason his dad was grouchy all the time. And he drank too much. Mom said it’s because he’s sad and never got over his wife dying but I don’t care. Just because something bad happens to you doesn’t mean you get to take it out on everyone else. And you especially shouldn’t take it out on your only kid. Mom said we had to be kind to Marc’s dad and take special care of Marc. I just knew that Marc had always been my friend and he always would be.

  Marc spent most of his free time at our house and we were forever getting into trouble together. Which is exactly why I was grounded right now. If my mom could’ve gotten away with grounding Marc too she would’ve. My mom and dad loved him almost as much as they loved me.

  So while I was supposed to be home in bed reading or something, Marc and I had decided to go for a night swim at the quarry. Marc was ahead of me but turned to look back over his shoulder, “Hurry up Jason!! Last one there is a rotten egg.”

  Did I mention he was bossy?

  Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Nine

  It only took us about fifteen minutes to ride to the tree line that surrounded the quarry. This place was the biggest swimming hole in the valley and everyone came here to jump, everyone except me that is. I never jumped.

  The jump was only about 20 feet but I’d never been brave enough to do it. I usually just find my way to the water line and swim while the other kids, braver than me, practice their swan dives and cannonballs. And no, I don’t feel like I’m missing out.

  Every time we come to swim the other kids tease me and try to shame me into jumping. I always find a way to get out of it but today had been the last straw and I had gotten into a fistfight over it. Actually, I wouldn’t call it a fight. Johnny Thompson had punched me and then Marc had wiped the forest floor with him.

  I hated fighting. I was always afraid I’d hurt someone or someone would hurt me. JT had managed to bloody my nose and when he egged me into fighting back I just couldn’t do it. Even Marc had yelled for me to get up and hit him back but I was too scared. So when JT took another run at me, Marc whooped him good. Marc wasn’t afraid of anything ever.

  That fight was why I was grounded and also why I had let Marc talk me into coming out to the quarry tonight. I was going to get over this fear of jumping. Marc said if I finally jumped no one would pick on me anymore. He said that by coming to the quarry at night we could stay out as long as it took without me feeling pressured by anyone watching.

  There’s a reason he’s my best friend.

  We reached the quarry and threw our bikes down twenty yards from the edge. We stripped to our underwear.

  Marc turned to me and smiled and then without one word he started running. He sailed off the ledge and seemed to hang in mid air with the moon behind him before he plummeted out of sight.

  I heard a splash and then a whoop of delight.

  “Are you ok?” I peeked nervously over the edge to see him climbing out onto the rocks below

  “Come on, your turn. I know you can do it!”

  I waited for him to climb back up, “I just don’t think I’m ready for this, Marc.”

  “Listen, man, I know it’s scary but you have to face your fear head on. You can’t let fear control your life. I mean, it’s ok to have a healthy fear of things that might hurt you but you’ve seen us all do it a hundred times. You have to choose to do it anyway. That’s how brave men are born.”

  “Not you, you were brave from the minute you came into this world. You were born brave.”

  “That’s not true. There’s plenty that scares me.”

  “Oh yeah? Like what?”

  “Like Mrs. Albertson!”

  “Our science teacher?”

  “Yeah, that mole on her schnoz is pretty scary but I still look her in the face every day, don’t I?”

  I laughed, “Hilarious, dumbass. That’s not a real thing.”

  Marc stopped smiling and lowered his voice, “I’m scared of my dad.”

  I didn’t know what to say. His voice sounded funny. I’d never heard Marc say he was scared of anything or anyone. I’d also never seen him cry. But now, even in the moonlight, it looked as if he had tears in his eyes.

  “What? Why?”

  “Look, you only know how dads are based on your own dad. Your dad is nice and play’s ball with you and teaches you stuff. My dad isn’t like your dad. He doesn’t care if I exist or
not.”

  “I’m sure your dad loves you in his own way.”

  “Maybe, I remind him of my mom or something. I don’t know. But I don’t think he loves me. Why do you think I’m at your house all the time? You don’t even know how good you have it, do you?”

  I didn’t know what to say but I felt like I had to say something. “Why are you scared of him though? Has your dad ever hit you?”

  “He doesn’t beat me or anything but he isn’t exactly the most loving parent either. I know how dads are supposed to be and he aint it. I guess he tries but he ends up yelling and then I yell back.

  When he drinks it’s like a switch gets flipped and all the anger he keeps inside boils out. I’m always worried it’s going to boil out onto me. I have to walk on eggshells.”

  My dad had never raised his voice to me and hearing Marc talk about his dad this way made me nervous, “That does sound kinda scary.”

  Marc wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “One of these days I wont be scared anymore and I’ll stand up to him. Tell him how he makes me feel.” Marc smiled and punched me in the shoulder. “Hell maybe I’ll even do it tonight.”

  “Maybe my dad can talk to him? Help him see what a real dad is supposed to be like?”

  Marc’s face changed. “I’m not like you. I don’t need someone to fight my battles for me.”

  I could see I had hurt his feelings but I wasn’t sure what to do.

  “I’m not a wimp. I can handle it just fine.”

  “I’m not saying you’re a wimp. I just thought maybe your dad needs someone to talk to like another grown up or something.”

  “I only told you that stuff about my dad so you could see that everyone is scared of something but only wusses let it keep them from what they want. Stop being such a wuss and jump already! You let everyone make fun of you and then you think a grown up is going to fix it? Do you want to jump or do you want JT to keep smashing your face in?” Marc looked angry now. “Or maybe, you’d rather go home and tell your mommy you weren’t really in a fight but that you were punched because you were too afraid to stand up for yourself?”

  I stood up and clenched my fist. I had never felt like hitting anyone more in my life. Not even JT.

  Marc looked down at my fist, “What are you doing, man I was just teasing. You want to punch ME now?”

  “You never tease me, they tease me, you never do, that’s why you’re my best friend.”

  “Man, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that stuff.”

  My face burned with anger and I turned away from him.

  “Hey man,” he said, as he put his hand on my shoulder. I turned and shoved him so hard he fell on his ass. Marc looked up at me with regret and surprise. I didn’t apologize. Instead, I straightened my back, turned towards the quarry and started running. When I reached the edge I just kept running, right out over the water.

  My breath caught.

  My stomach went into my throat.

  I plummeted towards the water.

  In that moment, I forgot everything Marc had told me about pointing my feet and holding my breath.

  When I hit the water with a gigantic smack my mouth was open in a ginormous, soundless scream.

  I went deep into the dark, cold, murky water. I opened my eyes but I couldn’t tell which way was up. I resisted the urge to panic and let myself relax. I let my eyes focus on a dim light ahead of me and realized it was the big Montana moon getting closer as my body naturally rose to the surface. Once I broke the surface I gulped in the sweet night air and through the surging adrenaline roaring in my ears I could hear a voice in the distance, quickly getting louder. What the hell was that?

  “Woo hoo!! You re a badass!! Geronimooooooo.”

  All the way down Marc hollered culminating in a righteous cannonball right next to me. When he came up he was laughing. He splashed me and I dunked his head under water.

  “Man, I can’t believe you did that!” Marc beamed.

  “Well, you pissed me off!” I slapped the water towards his face in play anger.

  “So, pissing you off is the only way to get you to say ‘screw it’”?

  I laughed, “I guess so.”

  “Right on!”

  “Just don’t do it anymore.”

  “I wont. I’m sorry. Forgive me?”

  I reached over and dunked Marc again.

  Chapter One Hundred Sixty

  Thirty minutes later, Marc and I stretched out on large towels and stared up at the starry sky.

  “Tell me a story.”

  Marc was good at story telling. He loved to tell them and I loved to hear them.

  “Once there was a boy from a small town.”

  “You always start off that way.”

  “Ssh. Once there was a boy from a small town, his name was Tony.

  Tony wasn’t particularly smart nor was he dumb. He might not have been book smart but he had an imagination and with imagination he knew could foresee all the things that could happen to him if he could just leave this small town. He liked the town he lived in just fine. He had friends there….” Marc stopped, looked over at me smiled. He looked back up at the sky and continued. “…but Tony knew there was much more out there. Other towns. Other friends. Tony knew he could travel to Egypt and make friends with a Sheik and become his personal bodyguard. He would tame tigers and eat grapes fed to him by harem girls.”

  I laughed at the image of Marc sitting in his tighty whitey’s getting grapes dropped into his mouth by a bunch of girls.

  Marc ignored me. “Tony also knew he could travel to the big city and become a broker on Wallstreet. He’d become so rich he would build a skyscraper just for himself. The building would be so high that it reached into the clouds. Airplanes would fly by and he would wave to the pilots from his window.”

  I gulped audibly and Marc laughed. My fear of heights, even though conquered momentarily, made me cringe at the thought of such a high building.

  Marc continued, “Tony thought maybe he would travel to the jungles of the amazon and discover a tribe that would make them their ruler and they worship the ground he walked on.

  One day, Tony got tired of dreaming and imagining and decided it was time to start doing. He packed his backpack with only the essentials, food and warm clothes and comic books.”

  “Comic books? Who takes comic books on an adventure?”

  “Tony knew that traveling to distant lands took time so he needed something to read”

  I laughed, “Fine, Tony took adventure ON his adventure.”

  “Do you want me to finish the story or not?”

  I used my best British accent, “Please, continue your highness.”

  “Ok. With no money in his pocket Tony set off down the road. He tried to hitchhike but no one really wanted to pick up a kid in the middle of the night. He hid when he saw a cop car come by. He didn’t want to get arrested and brought back home. Finally after walking all night and being so cold, a trucker stopped and asked him if he wanted a ride.

  The trucker was a nice old codger with a red trucker hat that said ‘Dreamscape’. Tony knew the hat was a sign so he got in. The trucker asked Tony where he was headed and Tony told him, ‘I’m going as far as you are.’

  ‘Well kid, I’m traveling all the way to the Indian ocean.’

  ‘Sounds good to me,’ Tony replied.

  Soon the rumbling of the road caused Tony to fall asleep. It was so soothing and he was so tired.

  Tony must have slept for hours because when he awoke he found himself on a ship!”

  “How the heck did he get on a ship without even noticing? Did the old man carry him? Was he drugged?”

  “Geez just chill. I’m getting there. Not everyone drugs you, you know.”

  “Whatever. All I’m saying is that there’s no way I wouldn’t notice being put on a ship…unless I was drugged.”

  Marc ignored me and continued, “So Tony found himself on the deck of a large ship. It looked like a pirate ship. O
nly not like pirates in the movies. These guys had guns and bandannas covering their faces. They put him to work swapping the poop deck.”

  We both laughed at the thought of this. I rolled around laughing and clutching my stomach. “Poop deck! There’s no such thing.”

  “Shut up and let me finish my story,” Marc laughed.

  “So there I was, er there Tony was, swabbing the poop deck.”

  I squashed another wave of laughter.

  “And suddenly the door to the belly of the ship opened with a bang. It was the captain. He had two real eyes, no eye patches and no parrot. But he did have a wooden leg. He grabbed Tony and yelled, ‘A stowaway!’ Tony was only a little scared but then the head pirate said, ‘I need a right hand man. I just had to kill the other one. Are you up for the job?’

  ‘I sure am,’ said Tony. And so the pirate made Tony his best mate and they sailed on to Fiji to start plundering the islands for treasure.”

  I interrupted Marc, “Do you really want to stow away on a ship? You can’t really want to be a pirate?”

  “When I’m old enough I’m going to hop a train and ride the rails all the way to New York City!”

  I had heard all of Marc’s imaginings before but there was something magical about hearing him describe his wished for adventures. I knew I’d never go on any but it was fun to follow along in my head. It was like reading a book or having your best friend read a book to you out loud.

  I started to have a sinking feeling in my stomach. One day Marc was going to leave and he would be leaving me here all by myself. I didn’t like to think about that. I wasn’t enjoying his story anymore. Now all I wanted to do was go home.

  I stood up, “Come on its getting late.”

  Chapter One Hundred Sixty-One